GOVERNMENT OVERREACH AT ITS WORST.

End Retroactive Rulemaking and Protect Patient Choice

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WHAT HAPPENED

A licensed Virginia physical therapist with 20+ years of flawless practice, 110,000+ patient visits, and ZERO prior complaints was destroyed for doing his job despite: 

• No criminal conduct.
• No patient harm.
• Documented informed consent.
• Positive patient outcomes.
• Hundreds of patient testimonials.
• Unrebuted expert testimony in his favor.

Yet the Virginia Board of Physical Therapy still imposed: 

• 4+ YEAR SUSPENSION
• INDEFINITE PROBATION
• PERMANENT RESTRICTIONS
• NATIONAL BLACKLISTING

Then the Virginia Board of Physical Therapy admitted the truth:

✅SAFE AND COMPETENT

✅NO VIOLATIONS FOUND

✅NO PATIENT HARM FOUND

✅DOCUMENTED INFORMED CONSENT 

✅POSITIVE OUTCOMES

✅UNREBUTED EXPERT SUPPORT

Same record.
Same facts.
Different outcome.

They admitted he did nothing wrong — and punished him anyway.

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THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS
Patients voluntarily sought this care.

• They benefited.
• They wanted the care to continue.

Competent adults gave informed consent.

• No one who received the treatment ever complained. 

The Board’s response?

Impose a mandatory chaperone rule that even those same patients cannot refuse — stripping grown adults of their right to choose their own healthcare.

A naked power grab with:

• No clear law.
• No published regulation.
• No definition of  what “pelvic floor therapy” even is.
• No definition of what a “chaperone” is or when one is required. 

Just raw, corrupt government power — applied retroactively — to crush a career and deny patients access from care they wanted.

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THIS IS A DIRECT ASSAULT ON YOUR FREEDOM

• Your right to choose effective treatment without government voyeurs in the exam room.
• Your right as a competent adult to give informed consent.
• Every physical therapist’s right to practice standard, evidence-based care — without fear of some unelected bureaucrat rewriting the rules years later.

If they can do this to him, they can do it to ANY PT in Virginia — orthopedic, sports, manual therapy, you name it.

Pelvic floor patients already face long waits and provider shortages.

• This abuse will make good therapists stop offering these services entirely. 
• Real suffering patients will be abandoned so regulators can feel powerful.

This is NOT oversight.

This is abuse of power.

This is regulatory terrorism.

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THIS IS NOT ABOUT ELIMINATING PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS 

This petition is about whether government agencies can:

• reinterpret undefined standards after the fact,
• impose discipline untethered from evidence, and
• maintain severe restrictions even when contradictory evidence was never meaningfully reconciled.

Because once evidence no longer constrains government power, outcomes stop depending on facts.

They depend on who holds the power.

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THE VIRGINIA BOARDS AND DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH PROFESSIONS PROVED THEY CAN: 

• Ignore unrebutted expert testimony (including the only true pelvic specialist, Dr. Holly Tanner)
• Ignore medical records and sworn testimony
• Ignore positive patient outcomes
• Ignore evidence-based research 
• Ignore their own “no harm, no violation” findings
• And still annihilate your career

When evidence no longer matters, only their power does.

That should concern every licensed professional and every patient who depends upon one.

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DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY NOW

We call on the Virginia General Assembly, Governor Abigail Spanberger, and the Department of Health Professions to:

1. STOP punishing clinicians with no proven patient harm.
2. END secret, retroactive reinterpretation of standards.
3. REQUIRE clear, publicly adopted rules (via Administrative Process Act) — not vague after-the-fact gotchas.
4. PROTECT informed adult patients’ right to accept or decline chaperones.
5. FORCE boards to actually weigh evidence, expert testimony, and patient voices instead of running railroad jobs.

If these unelected bureaucrats can label you “safe and competent” and still destroy you…

• NO clinician in Virginia is safe. 
• NO patient’s choice is real.

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TAKE ACTION - PROTECT PATIENT & THERAPIST AUTONOMY

SIGN THIS PETITION.

• Demand evidence-based regulation, transparent standards, accountability, and protection for informed patient choice.

SHARE IT FURIOUSLY.

• Send it to every physical therapists, every women’s health group, every patient you know, every Virginia legislator, and anyone who values medical freedom.

This isn’t just one man’s fight.

This is a fight for medical freedom in Virginia — and everywhere.

Scott Roberts, PT, LMT

Virginia Licensed Physical Therapist & Massage Therapist 

Victim of Regulatory Abuse